AN ABRIDGEMENT OF THE PREROGATIVES OF St. AND, MOTHER of the MOTHER of GOD.  
With the Approbation of the Doctors at Paris: And Thence Done into English to accompany The Contemplations on the Life and Glory of Holy MARY; and the Defence of the Same; with some Pieces of a like nature.  
To which a PREFACE is added concerning the Original of the STORY.  

IMPRIMATUR,  
Liber cui Titulus, [An Abridgement of the Prerogatives of S. Ann, etc.]  
Guil. Needham R. R. in Christo P. ac D.D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cant. a Sacr. Dom. Feb. 14. 1687.   
LONDON: Printed for Ric. Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard. MDCLXXXVIII.   

THE PREFACE.  
THat Article of the Pastoral Letter of Cardinal Camus, which directs his Clergy not to disguise or misrepresent the Doctrine of the Church, as it shows the ingenuity of that Illustrious Prelate, so it manifestly detects, that he thought such Artifices were not unusual. I know that Ingenuity and fair Representing are what all will commend, but what few can bear, and as few practice. There is an Order of men whose Talon is generally thought not to lie much that way, who cease not with all imaginable vigour to prosecute the giver of so Pestilent Advice. Nor is it indeed strange, that Dexterity should be looked on as more advantageous to a Party, than naked Honesty. But I must needs say, though some have played more cunningly, there are others who have dealt more honestly; among whom I place the Contemplator on the Life of H. Mary: For this Gentleman deals plainly enough with the World, and gives such a Pattern of Devotion towards the Queen, as she is called, of all pure Creatures, as shows he is not ashamed to bring into the greatest Light, what others at the same time industriously cast into Shadow. And having showed himself so very fair and open, I expected he would have before this time prevented the office of the following Treatise; and that having said so much of the Maternity of Holy Mary, he must have more than a little left for the Maternity of St. Anne. For if both (according to him, and the Maids of St. Joseph) the Tree is known by its Fruit, and the Branches are holy if the Root be sanctified; therefore if Jesus was entirely Holy, Mary's flesh was never defiled, and if not mary, neither St. Ann's: If so, I say St. Ann has good reason to complain of her being passed over with such silence, while so great Adorations are paid to her Daughter. And if it look like Protestant-presumption to go to God the Father only through Jesus Christ, without the Intercession of his Mother, it must needs be less Presumption, and greater Humility, to beg the Grandmother too to intercede. If we can go so far, as to suspect the efficacy of our Prayers, when offered up in the sole Name of Jesus, and think it safest to recur to the Divine Maternity, and the Name of Mary, it must needs be the best way to make them throughly effectual to follow the Advice of the Josephine Maids, and in the first place to address ourselves to St. Ann, and in her name approach to the Daughter, who to be sure is not able to refuse her Mother any thing, no more than her Son can her. Nay, if we go to St. Ann's Mother, it will be so much the better yet, and the same Reason would still carry us higher till we can go no farther. The Principles are plainly owned, and expressly and industriously taught; and than it must be somewhat too like foulness to deny evident and palpable Consequences: But I am so charitable as to think that the Contemplator on H. Mary, who has so Seraphical a Pen in describing her Honours and Glories, is just to his Principles; and if so, none can be fit to extol the Prerogatives of her Mother.  
For we are told from Apocryphal Writers, and his own fruitful Imagination, of the strange wonders of Mary's Maternity, 
P. 26, 28.  How she was exempted from the general Curse of Sin in her Passive Conception in the Womb of S. Ann; how she had the use of Reason while there; understood the Natures, and Decrees of God; saw into all the Mysteries of Grace; exercised Acts of a most pure, inflamed and restless Love, and sung a joyful Magnificat to her wonderful Benefactor. We are told how the 
(a) P. 29.  Angels sung, Glory be to the Mother of God; and than it cannot be otherwise, but that she who is thus early complemented Queen of Heaven, must at her 
(b) P. 45.  Nativity be adorned with all inward and outward Graces, and have a most harmonious Body and Soul, upon which we must believe, that Heaven, Limbo and Earth, were replenished with transcendent Joys: We are after this told, how 
(c) P. 52.  from the hour of her Birth she makes a Vow, and at Three years' end performs it; 
(d) P. 54.  how she is received into the Temple, and placed on the steps, on each of which she sings forth a Gradual Psalm, and contemplates on the several Mysteries of the Rosary, and then begs the Chief Priest to be admitted into the Society of the Holy Women who watched and prayed by the Ark; how her whole Life, both in the Temple and afterward, is only 
(e) P. 80.  one continued act of supereminent Contemplation and Ecstasy, with which at last she is cast into a Fever of Love, which causes her death, upon which her Soul is conveyed with ineffable Harmonies of Angels, and seated in Glory above all their Quires, and 
(f) P. 83.  her Body assumed up afterward, and vested with Super-Seraphical Majesty; and 
(g) P. 90.  how the Angels and Elect severally do homage to her; how the Angels give her the Badges of Sovereignty over Men, Archangels, over Nobles, Thrones, over Kings, and so the rest; and how solemnly the Blessed Trinity congratulates her; and all this is as particularly and exactly described, as if he had been no less than Master of the Ceremonies.  
It's pity the Scriptures should be so scanty and imperfect, as to have none of this rare stuff; but our Josephine Maids, who give the reason for the silence of the Evangelists concerning their great Patroness, may give the same, why so little is said by them concerning her Daughter, viz. That God conceals the greatest Excellencies, and that the holiest Saints are lost to the World through the excess of their Merit; that Mary being the Soul that nearest approached to the Divinity, was a Treasure as ineffable as God; but that, God hath at length been pleased to draw these things out of silence by Annual Commemorations.  
But as many as reason freely, cannot but have some suspicion of the late ushering these Commemorations into the Calendar, and be apt to guests at the true Reason of the silence of the Holy Penmen, and conclude, the Holy Spirit foreseeing that superstitious worship that was to come into the World, to undermine the glorious designs of this Blessed Religion, took away whatever might prove the occasions.  
The Enemy of Mankind was soon sensible of the Provision the Holy Ghost had made against the superstition which he designed to introduce into the Church, and therefore early sat his Instruments at work to prepare Materials. Gospels were forged, and put forth under the name of Apostles, containing a Doctrine totally repugnant to theirs. Nor could Satan ever have a more cunning device to weaken and depreciate those Instruments of our Salvation delivered to us by God, than this of coining others; For by giving false Scriptures, not only those were imposed upon who were not able to discover the Cheat, but, afterward when the Doctrine had taken some root, even those that could; it being then very hard (if not impossible) satisfactorily to learn (other Authors of the same times, and of those immediately subsequent mentioning the same things) how much, or what is to be credited in such Writings, especially if ancient. For very frequently, after the Piece has appeared to be a Forgery, the Matter of it has not been disbelieved, even by Learned Men, but kept its ground upon the Authority of other Writers, who were but Copiers of that Condemned Original.  
We have an Example of this in the very Case of the B. Virgin and her Mother, who continue still to have those Worships and Invocations made to them, whose probable Foundation is rejected even by the stiffest Asserters of their Prerogatives; for there being so very little said of the One, and nothing at all of the Other, in the received Gospels; our great Enemy, toward the accomplishment of his forementioned Design, was not negligent to supply that seeming Defect: And how could this be better done, than under the Name of S. James the Cousin or Brother of our Lord, who being of the same Family, can't but be supposed well acquainted with what he relates. This seems to be the main Original for super-inducing such a Devotion; and the whole Fabric of the Marian Religion appears to lean upon no better Support: But notwithstanding the Discovery of the Forgery, Gregory the 13th thought fit by his 
(a) A. 1584.  Breve, to give S. Ann a Festival on the 26th of July; and Sixtus 5. Reforming the Breviary, appointed an Order to it; which was the occasion of the Establishment of the Maids of S. Joseph, who upon the keeping this Day, form themselves into a Family, taking S. Ann for their Patroness, and were afterwards confirmed, and taken into the Protection of the late Queen-Mother of France, Ann of Austria. So that in this Age the Mother of the Blessed Virgin is drawn out of Silence by a Festival of the Church; and the next Age may find perhaps another Festival even for Her Mother.  
I cannot find so much as the Names of Joachim and Ann before Epiphanius, who indeed 
(b) Haeres. 78. p. 1049. Ed. Paris 1622.  mentions them, and no more; nor is his Authority considerable enough to establish any thing. S. Austin 
(c) Contra Faustum l. 23. To. 6. p. 98. Paris 1555.  writing against Faustus, doth not seem satisfied even as to this: and gives the same Reason that a Protestant would, which is its Uncanonicalness; Quia Canonicum non est, non me constringit, saith the Father. The 
(d) De Nativitate Virgins, To. 9 par. 3.  Epistle to Chromatius, concerning the Nativity of the Virgin, which is at the end of S. Hierom's Works, is no less than that other of the same stamp concerning her 
(a) De Assumptione B. V.  Assumption, spurious; and is so condemned by Baronius, having been so first by Erasmus, and since by all generally, except Chr. a Castro. Yet this and the Prot-evangelium are the incomparable Pieces that have had so many Copiers. It is not easy to determine of what Antiquity the Forgery is, but how great soever that be, there appear no Signs, but such as are very late, of its being much credited. Germanus, Hippolytus, and Damascene say a little; but the Story is very naked, till 
(e) Lib. 1. c. 7.  Nicephorus that lying Monk dresses it; and even that is very short. The counterfeit S. Hierom tells a long Tale with such a grace, as to make it doubtful who deserves the Bell, he or the counterfeit S. James; they look like two such inimitable Originals, as one can't be thought to Copy from the other: Tho Pseudo-Hieronymus is so ingenuous as to tell us he is beholding to Seleucus for this fine Legend; and this gives us some hint how this came to be Minted.  
First, we have the Letter of Chromatius and Heliodorus to S. Hierom, pretending that Armonius and Virinus had told them that S. Hierom had an Hebrew Gospel of S. Matthew, wherein the Infancy of the V Mary, and our Saviour were written, which they desire him to turn into Latin: To this the False Hierom answers, excusing the difficulty of the Work, for that the Apostle designed not to have it published, that therefore he had sealed it up in the Hebrew, and not added it to his Common Gospel, to the end it might be secret, but delivered it to be kept by some choice Religious Men, who would not suffer it to be Translated, but only gave some Relations that it contained; till Seleucus first published it, wherein though he spoke Truth as to the History and Miracles, yet added many Falsehoods as to the Doctrines, and therefore he promises to make a verbal and exact Translation from the Hebrew: But the Forgery is so ill spun, and the Blunders so gross, as to give as good a Character of the Author's Talents, as of his Veracity. The Author probably was Seleucus the Manichaean, or Leucius, as J. Casaubon reads in some Manuscripts, the first Syllable being left out; and 'tis for this Reason that S. Austin disputing against Faustus the Manichee, 
* Si illius Apocryphae Scripturae ubi Joachim, Pater Mariae legitur, detinerer. L. 23.  rejects such Apocryphal Writings, perhaps the very same: and elsewhere condemns this Leucius. But he can be condemned by none more severely than by a Pope, Gelasius, who calls him a Disciple of the Devil, and says, all his Books are Apocryphal; which reflects a little oddly on that other Pope, who not only received this Forgery, but founded a Day and Office upon the shameless Fable of this Heretic.  
But because Pseudo-Jacobus writes with greater Authority, and would intrude his stuff for Scripture, it may not be amiss, or undiverting, to see what is so Authoritatively delivered with the Apostolical Benediction at the end. He gins the Story, telling us of one Joachim, who is said to be very Rich and Charitable, and to give double Offerings to God of his Estate. Now, we are told, that when the great Feast of the Lord drew near, the People of Israel brought all their Offerings, amongst whom was Joachim, none of the least eminent; and Reuben stood up against him, and said, It is not lawful for you to offer yours, because you have not made Seed in Israel. Upon which the Gentleman was very sad, and went to the Genealogy of the Twelve Tribes, saying to himself, I'll see whether in the Tribes of Israel I can find any who are without Seed. Having accordingly made an enquiry, he sees that all the Righteous had Seed: Thence he calls Abraham to mind, and how God was pleased to give him Isaac in his old Age.  
And Joachim was much cast down, and appeared not to his Wife, but retired into the Wilderness, where he fixed his Tent, and fasted forty days, and forty nights, saying with himself, I will not go up to eat or drink, but my Prayer shall be my Food.  
But in the mean while his Wife Ann endured two griefs, her Widowhood and her Barrenness. Now the great Festival came, and Judith her Maid said to her, How long will you afflict your spirit? It's not lawful for you to mourn, for 'tis a great Holiday: Come, Madam, put on your best Dress. But Ann answered, Depart from me, I will not do it: God has grievously humbled me. Judith on the other side was still importunate with her Mistress, and said, What shall I say to you if you will not hear? Deservedly has God shut up your Womb. And Ann was greatly troubled at it, and was prevailed upon to put off her Mourning habit, and to put on her Wedding garments: And about the Ninth hour she went into the Garden to walk, where seeing a Laurel-Tree, she sits down under it, and pours forth her Prayers to this effect; God of my Fathers bless me, and hear my Prayer, as thou blessedest the Womb of Sarah, and gavest her a Son.  
When looking up into Heaven she saw a Sparrows Nest, which made her lament after a very grievous rate, and burst into such expessions; Woe is me! To what can I be likened? or, What Womb brought me forth, that I should be a Curse before the Children of Israel? For they laugh at, and reproach me, they throw me out of the Temple of the Lord my God. Alas! what am I like to? I can't be compared to the Birds of the Heaven, etc. And after this manner she proceeds, alleging to God, that he deals worse by her than by any other sort of Creatures, worse than by the Birds and Beasts, nay, than by the Elements, for that all these are fruitful. And no sooner had she finished her Complaint, but the Angel of the Lord took his flight towards her, and said to her, Ann, Ann, the Lord has heard thy Prayer, thou shalt conceive, and bring forth a Child, and thy name shall be celebrated over all the World. Then Ann very gratefully makes a Vow to God, to make a Present to him of the Child which she shall have, whether Male or Female, to Minister to him all the days of its life.  
And after this, behold two Angels came, and said to her, Joachim your Husband is coming with his Flocks: For the Angel of the Lord came down to him, and said Joachim, Joachim, God has heard thy Prayer, go hence, behold, Ann thy Wife shall conceive in her Womb. And he went down, and called his Shepherds, saying, Bring me ten pure Ewe Lambs, and they shall be for my God; Twelve Calves which shall be for the Priests; and an Hundred Goats for the People.  
And Joachim came with his Flocks, and Ann stood in the Gate and saw him coming, and ran and hung on his neck, saying, now she knew she was Blessed, and so sings her Magnificat.  
And Joachim rested the first day in his House, and on the morrow made his offerings; but being more incredulous than his Wife, he desires a Sign for the confirmation of what the Angel had foretold, which accordingly appears on the Ephod. To conclude, Ann at the end of nine months is delivered of the Virgin Mary. And the Birth is little less Miraculous than the Conception.  
Afterwards, when she was six Months old, her Mother put her on the ground, to try whether she could walk upright; and she walked seven steps, and came into her Mother's Lap. And Ann said, As the Lord lives, thou shalt not walk on the Earth, till I shall have offered thee in the Lord's Temple. And she made a Chapel in her Chamber, and whatever was impure or common, was for her sake removed: And she had Holy Hebrew Maids to wait on her.  
The first year being over, Joachim made a great Feast, and invited the High Priests and Scribes, with the Sanhedrin and all the People; and he offered up his Oblations to the Priests, and they blessed him, saying, God of our Fathers bless this Girl, and give her a famous and eternal Name in all Generations. And all the People said, Amen, Amen. Then they offered her to the Priests, and they blessed her, saying, The most high God bless this Child, and bless her with a blessing that shall have no end. Then the Mother snatching her away, gave her the Teat, and withal made this Song; I will sing Praises to the Lord my God, who has visited me, and taken from me the Reproach of mine Enemies. The Lord God has given the manifold Fruit of Righteousness in his sight; who shall declare to the Sons of Reuben that Ann gives suck?  
Singing this, she carried her into her Chapel, and went forth and Ministered to them. The Feast being over, they went away rejoicing, and gave her the name of Mary, glorifying the God of Israel.  
When she was two years old, Joachim would have carried her to the Temple to pay their Vow, but that Ann hindered it till the completion of the third year, which was then done with a great deal of solemnity. The Hebrew holy Maids being invited, took each their Lamps and lighted them, and went without looking back till they came to the Temple; where the High Priest received and kissed her, and said, Marry, the Lord has magnified thy Name in all Generations; and more to that effect. And he placed her upon the third step of the Altar, and the Lord God sent his Grace upon her, and she Danced, and all the House of Israel fell in love with her. But the wonder is, she took no notice of her Parents, and they went home admiring and praising God that she turned not after them.  
After this we are told, how she was educated here like a Dove, and fed by the hands of an Angel; till being twelve years of Age, a great Council was held how to dispose of her. This was opened by the High Priest, who tells the rest of the Priests her Age, and asks their advice, lest the Sanctuary forsooth be defiled. The Answer was, Do thou stand at the Altar and pray for her, and whatsoever God shall manifest to thee, that will we do. Upon this the H. Priest, in his Pontifical Habit, goes into the Holy of Holies and makes supplication for her, when behold the Angel of the Lord stood by him, and said to him, Zachary, Zachary, go forth, and call together the Widowers of the People, and let all bring their Rods; and to whom God shall show the Sign, his Wife shall she be to keep.  
Now the Heralds went over all the Land of Judea, and the Trumpet of the Lord sounded, and all ran forth; and Joseph throwing away his Axe, went out to meet them: So they went all together to the H. Priest, who taking the Rods they brought, from them, went into the Temple and prayed; after Prayer he took the Rods and went forth, and restored to every one his Rod, and no sign appeared. But Joseph took his the last, and a Dove immediately flew out of it, to the no small amazement of the spectators, and lighted on Joseph 's head. Upon this the Priest said to him, The Lord has chosen you to take this Virgin to keep her. Which Joseph opposes, making answer, I have Children, and am old, whereas she is a young Girl; whence I am afraid of becoming ridiculous to the Children of Israel. At last the Vengeance being proposed to him, which God executed on Corah, Dathan and Abiram, being put by it into a dreadful fright, he makes no longer resistance, but says, Marry, I take thee from the Temple of the Lord, but I will leave thee at home, and go about my Carpenter's Trade: And I pray God to keep thee all the days of thy life.  
Then we are told how, not long after this, the Priests had a Council about making a Veil to the Temple, for which the Holy Maids of the House of David were called, and all took their work by Lot, true Purple falling to Mary's share. About which time Zacharias dying, is succeeded by Samuel. Marry having received her Purple, went to work; and taking a Pitcher, went to draw water, and she heard a Voice, Hail Marry full of Grace: and she looked about on both sides to know whence the Voice came, but could see nothing. She comes trembling into the House, puts down her Pitcher, and taking the Purple, sat down in her seat to work; and the Angel of the Lord stood before her, and said, Fear not Mary, for thou, etc. Then are intermixed some Passages taken out of the Evangelists.  
After which it's said, that she being six months gone, and sixteen years old, Joseph returned from his business, about which he had been some years without coming home to his Wife. Now finding her big, he was much startled, and expostulated with her in many words; but is at last advertised of the whole matter by an Angel. But the pity was, that a Scribe coming to speak with Joseph, perceives Mary great with Child, and upon this makes a terrible outcry. Immediately Justice lays hold on Joseph, and he is brought before the H. Priest; and being both examined, he maintains that he had not kept company with her; and she says, with a great deal of bitter crying, that she had neither his nor any other Mans. They both denying, the Priest makes them drink the Water of Redargution, which having done them no hurt, to the great astonishment of the beholders, the Priest said, that since God had not manifested their sin, neither did he condemn them.  
Then is inserred what is related by St. Luke, how upon the Edict of Augustus, Joseph leads her to Bethlehem. But this is not without enriching the Relation, and using even wicked and immodest expressions. At last we are told, how she was Delivered in a Cave, saving S. Luke's Honour, Joseph having found her a Midwife by a great Miracle, and in his journey met with plenty of great Miracles: which Midwife tells another who is called Salome; who not believing that a Virgin had brought forth a Child, comes to make the proof; which is so profanely and impudently described, together with other matters of as vile a nature as can well be imagined. All which declare it to be made in derision of Christianity; but that the better to make the Cheat pass, there are inserted in form of Rhapsody, some Expressions of the Evangelists, and some Rites to which colour may be given by some passages of the Old Testament, besides the simplicity of the manner of Speech, and several Hebraisms affected. By the help of which he thought he might, as he doth conclude, I James writ this History in Jerusalem, where a tumult being raised, I withdrew myself into a desert place, till the death of Herod; and then like an Apostle he gives the Blessing.  
The first Man that produced this rich Gospel, and Translated it from the Greek was 
* Prot-evangelion cum Evangelica Historia S. Mari Evangelistae, & vita ejus in 8. Basil. 1552.  Postel; and it came out with the Notes of Bibliander, after which it appeared with a great deal of suitable company, under the Title of 
† Orthodoxagrapha. Gr. Lat Editore Grynaeo. Bald. 1569.  Orthodox Writings, which have as much right all of them to this Title, as this Gospel has to the Brother of our Lord. This Book indeed is so agreeable to the Genius of the first Publisher, as to make 
‖ L' Introduction au Traitè de la conformité des Merveilles Anciennes avec les Moderns. ch. 33.  H. Stevens suspect him to have a finger in the Forgery. But without defrauding him of the praises of handing it forth into the World, we may reasonably allow it elder, and probably the Original, as hath been said, of the Fable: which is too believed by Casaubon. This much is certain, that the Gospel going under the name of S. James, the Brother of our Lord, is expressly named, and condemned as Apocryphal by 
∴ An. 494. Con. Binii. To. 2. p. 264.  the Roman Synod under Gelasius, about the latter end of the fifth Century, as likewise the Book of the Nativity of our Saviour, and concerning Mary and the Midwife; with all those written by Leucius. We have by the same Synod, consisting of Seventy Bishops, condemned the several Gospels passing under the names of Thaddeus, Mathias, Peter, Barnaby, Thomas, Bartholomew, Andrew, which no doubt but were filled with such like Stories. It is no wonder then, if in the darker Ages such Trash came to be received, when it was very hard to make things incredible enough to gain belief; and no Superstition so gross as might not pass under those venerable Names. We have not only the Book of the Infancy of Jesus, and that of the Birth of Mary referred to by the Legendaries; but some also were not ashamed to own the Gospel of S. Ann. An Instance whereof is given in one Bonaventure of Ipres in Flanders by H. Stevens, telling us, That When Jesus Christ was grown big enough to work, Joseph began to employ him in his Trade, and once above the rest having commanded him to Saw a piece of Wood, he sawed it without taking heed to the mark that Joseph had made, so that it was too short; at which Joseph, being very angry, threatened to beat him, and would have done so, had not he made it longer, by taking himself one end, and making Joseph take the other, and each one pulling. If such things as these are not a scandal to Christianity, and the Invention of the Father of Lies, I know not what is.  
But, God be praised, it has fell out very happily, that these False Evangelists have notoriously given themselves the Lie; having not either Learning or Wit enough to lay the Plan of their Story so, as not to clash with the greatest Evidences of Time and Place. Hence they bring upon the Stage such persons as Issachar, Reuben, etc. who we are certain never were. And who, that is in the least acquainted with the Customs of the Jews, can believe, that a Girl of Three years old was ever put into the Sanctum Sanctorum, and there lived alone, without any body to take care of her, for many years? Certainly if only the High Priest entered there, and he not above one day in the year, and then neither not above once or twice; and if he entered three or four times, was to be put to death: nothing can be grosser than to place there a young helpless Child. And if we believe this, it is not much if we believe she lived there without Meat, Drink, Bed and Conversation for Ten or a Dozen years. Besides, that there were no Nuns or Holy Women in the Temple, as the Story supposes, is at large proved against Baronius by 
* Exercit. ad Bar. App. Annal. N. 21, 22, 23.  Casaubon.  
Having said so much of the Matter and Foundation, I have but little to add of the following Book itself. The Publisher tells you, That it relates directly to the Glory of the Supreme Creator of all things: And the Approvers tell you, that they find nothing in it but what is conformable to the Apostolical Roman Church; and that it is very useful to maintain the Devotion to S. Ann. But how directly that Devotion relates to the Glory of the Supreme Creator, they may be better able to reconcile than I am. I might easily compare some of the Doctrines with those of a Spanish Doctor lately condemned at Rome; nay, and parallel some of the very Expressions, to show that what is Heretical at one time, may be Orthodox at another. I might also show how the Legend came to be patched up out of the History of Hannah, Samuel's Mother, and that of our ever Blessed Lord; and might give a view of some other 
† Ave Maria Gratia plena, etc.— & benedicta sit Anna Mater sua, de qua sine macula tua processit caro Virginea.  Devotions made to St. Ann: But I am afraid I have too extravagantly already tired the Reader's patience, and therefore do conclude.   

TO THE Queen Regent.  
MADAM,  
IT is Divine Providence, and not Fortune or Humane Industry, that bestows Sceptres and Crowns; and all France visibly discovers in the Regency of YOUR MAJESTY, the Mild and Loving thoughts of the Divine Regent of the World, in giving us the Best, as well as the Greatest Princess of the Earth to Govern it.  
But may YOUR MAJESTY be pleased to suffer us, the poor Daughters of St. JOSEPH, to declare, That it is in You that we have not only observed, but felt one of the most beautiful draughts of this Divine Providence; which is, That as it hath its Eye and Sceptre over the least of the Worms that creep upon the Earth, as well as over the most exalted of Monarches who is lifted up on the Throne; So, Great Queen, Your Regency bearing its Glory already beyond Admiration, by so many Glorious Actions which seem to rob each other of their splendour in the Government of Your State, You judged that it would have lost somewhat of its Lustre, had not You showed Yourself as well a Charitable Mother of the poor Orphans, as a worthy Queen Regent of this great Monarchy. You have said from the beginning, what the Wisdom Incarnate said formerly, in this World, Suffer these little Souls to come to me. I am pleased to assist the Designs of Preventing Grace, which has drawn 'em out of the evil steps and perils of great Miseries, to which an extreme Poverty would have reduced 'em: Divine Providence has taken 'em into its care, and it pleases Me to make Myself its Agent, or Lieutenant, in the means of Loving and Helping them; I receive them under my Protection, and into My Bosom.  
Truly it is an Action so much the more Powerful and Meritorious before God, as it has the less of Interest, and as he alone could be its motive: But 'tis an Action which perfectly resembles, and worthily honours the steps of Divine Providence, of whose Favours and Succours, the Little as well as the Great, the Shorn as well as the Crowned heads partake.  
The most sublime cares in which YOUR MAJESTY is constantly to Admiration taken up for the Glory and Felicity of this State, are, it must be confessed, the lively Colours of its Portraiture: But Divine Providence was willing that the little destitute Maids, whose Honour and Life You preserve, should give the Shades.  
That therefore all France may admire the wonders of Your Conduct, Your poor Maids of St. Joseph will do nothing else in the World but publish to it the Miracles of Your Charity, and declare in the condition wherein we mean Creatures are, That as there is nothing too high for Your Regency, so nothing is too low for Your Goodness; which by too much meriting towards us, puts us into an entire inability of being ever able to be sufficiently Thankful.  
Behold, nevertheless, a small Testimony of our profound Acknowledgement, which carries our Hearts to the Feet of Your Majesty by this little Work and Abridgement of the Prerogatives of St. Ann, which we adjudged aught to be, if not worthy, at least not unworthy of Your Eyes, for the dignity of the Subject which it treats. And the motives which invited us to this Duty are, That as it was the day of St. Ann, when God inspired into us the first designs of Erecting an House after the Pattern of his, where Maids should be bred and instructed till the time they be provided for, in like manner as the Holy Virgin her Daughter was so carefully and so holily educated by her: So is it this same Saint which we believe to have been among the second Causes, that which procured us from the First this incomparable favour of the greatest Queen in the World, who imitates her Virtues, as well as worthily bears her Name.  
Wherefore after having taken St. Ann for our Tutelar, and the Governant in this House, and Dedicated to her a Chapel in the Design of erecting thereto a Confrairy in her Honour, who hath tied us to herself by Adoption, and by Spirit and Grace to Jesus and Mary, who compose her Family; we have presumed for the best return of Thanks which we have been able to present to Your Majesty, to represent to You upon this little Paper, as in a Map, a World of Merits and Perfections which were in this Great Saint, so to make yours acknowledged and admired, and God praised by seeing your Majesty's Life a true Image and Abstract of Hers. For if St. Ann were of the Blood-Royal of David, and consequently of the Race of Patriarches and Prophets, and so much honoured by God; all the World knows that Your Majesty is of a Royal Birth, so exalted, as the Sun always honours it with its Light, having no Horizon or setting for its Realms.  
If St. Ann were Great in Piety and Devotion; and if imitating the ancient Ann, Samuel's Mother, she had frequent recourse to the Sanctuary by her Prayers and Vows; the Piety which Your Majesty has from Your Ancestors, Charles 5. and Philip 2. is so familiar to You, as it may be called the Star which commands Your Inclinations; the Spirit which gives Life to Your Actions, and Success to all Your Designs.  
If St. Ann be worthily named by St. Damascene a Reasonable Turtle, forasmuch as she passed good part of her Life in solitude and sighing; alas, Madam, how many years has your Majesty led a Life more like to a solitary Person, than to the chiefest and the most virtuous Queen of the Universe!  
If St. Ann were great in the Love which she bore to her God, whom she could scarce ever suffer to be out of her sight; and to her Neighbour, by the assistance she gave to all who were any ways necessitous; alas, Great Queen, it is at Your expense, and by Your own experience, that You have learned, like the Messiah, both to suffer for God, and to suffer with the Miserable. And a time was when the Divine Providence had taken away the use and disposal of Riches, thereby to augment Your Charity towards God, but which at this day has given You the means whereby You may exercise Charity towards Your Subjects with a Liberality as extensive as exceeds both hopes and desires.  
If Prayer and Faith made St. Ann bear the Fruit of Benediction, and the first fruits of our Redemption; our Sacred Monarch, who shall, if it please God, one day place the Flowerdeluces above the Crescent, and the other fair flower of Your Majesty's Crown, are the Fruits as well of Your Prayers, and of Your Royal Virtues, as of your Womb. Have not so many reiterated Vows, so many sighs of your Majesty sent toward Heaven, made you the peaceable Dove of this State, and the Calm of our Storms?  
If St. Ann gave Lessons to her little Daughter, the holy Virgin, of living in Humility, Charity and Holiness; how many Blessings own we to Heaven, to see this Royal Spirit with which Your Majesty was born, and so many excellent Virtues and Royal Qualities slide so admirably into the Eyes, Ears, and Spirit of our good young King? How under so good a Government shall we not have a King of Wonders, one Liberal, Generous, and Pious?  
Lastly, If Jesus and Mary were both the most excellent Masterpieces of the Divine Power, both the Richest Treasures of Divine Wisdom, both the Divinest Objects of its Goodness, both the Worthiest Subjects of the Cares and the Government of St. Ann, yet hindered her not from daily adopting and associating to these two noble parts of her Family, several confiding Souls; So, though the Attention of Your Majesty more peculiarly regards the Education of the King, and the second Hope of France, his Brother; both given by Heaven for the Rest of this Monarchy, and for the Consolation of Your Majesty; yet You disdain not to open Your Bosom, and to tender the Arms of Your Mercy and Protection to the poor little Orphans, the Maids of St. Joseph.  
Behold, MADAM, the just resemblances of Your Glorious Pattern, which have given us the Confidence of laying at Your Majesty's Feet an Abridgement of the Wonders of this Holy Lady, whom God chose from all Eternity to be the Principle of his Ways in the Salvation of Men; thinking we could not better clear ourselves of the Ingratitude which Your Majesty's Lustre and excess of Goodness have made necessary, than by a little Treatise that contains the Prerogatives of St. Ann, to whom your Majesty gives and consecrates daily Your Person, Your Family, Your Realm and Your Subjects; and in consideration of whom, we bring to the Feet of your Majesty the Vows which we make of living and dying,  
MADAM, YOUR MAJESTY'S Most Humble, and most Obedient, and most Obliged Servants, THE MAIDS OF S. JOSEPH.   

The Epistle of the French Publisher, to the Christian Reader.  
It is about a year since, a little Book, entitled, The Acts of Invocation of St. Joseph, composed by the R. P. Chiflet of the Society of Jesus, accidentally falling into my hands, I Published it, and took the boldness to Dedicate it to the Queen. Now in as much as I could not have the Honour of presenting it myself, a Great Lady of the Court did me the favour to supply this defect, and to present it in my name. But it being but a week since I received the Copy of another Treatise, Entitled, The Prerogatives of St. Ann, Dedicated in like manner to her Majesty by the Maids of St. Joseph, it seemed proper to me to Print this as a continuance of the former. I therefore put it to the Press as soon as I could, not to retard the Fruit that the Public might thence reap; and, having otherwise proposed to myself, that in things which respect the Love of God, together with Christian Piety as well towards St. Joseph as St. Ann, as likewise the service of our Great Queen, I ought to use Diligence, and to give in the time prefixed, as I have endeavoured to do, this little Work; so if by Precipitation of the Impression there be any faults crept in, I beseech you, Reader, that you would excuse them, upon the assurance I give you, that in the new Edition which I purpose suddenly to make, I will endeavour to give you content, and to make this Book as Correct as it shall be possible for me. Receive it therefore, Reader, for a Testimony of mine Affection, or rather for the Love of yourself, which I am assured will not fail of being agreeable, seeing it relates directly to the Glory of the Supreme Creator of all things. Farewell.   

THE PREROGATIVES OF St. ANNE.  

CHAP. I. The Silence of the Evangelists concerning the Merits of St. Ann.  
IT is Nature's best Order to conceal from our eyes what her excellentest and chiefest Works contain of the utmost perfection and greatness, as if in this she meant to reproach the Vanity of our minds, which can hardly conceive a good desire in the heart, without bringing it up immediately to the mouth, and publishing it to the Rays of the Sun. Whereas Heaven, the most wonderful part of the visible Creation, shows not its powerful influences which govern all inferior things; or the Fire, that imperious quality which softens the most intractable Metals; or the Earth its Gold, which it forms within its entrails; or the Sea its Treasures, which it encloses within its Abysses.  
An Order that might be styled Religious, if Nature guided it with Judgement: but is yet better observed in Grace, which is pleased to cover and drown in Ignorance and Silence the greatest perfections of the most holy and most elevated Souls, with the design, that being afterward revealed, they may more attract our admirations and respects. And when I consider how God shown not himself to Moses, but in the transient glimpse of a burning bush, and how he says that his habitations are in darkness, and his thrones in the clouds, and that he never abases himself so low as to make our senses or our reason capable of his sight, or of the knowledge of his perfections; I discover presently, in my Opinion, the reason for which certain Souls, the most eminent in sanctity, and the most approaching to the Deity, are a Treasure as ineffable as God, who conceals it from human eyes. The Athenians offered more Incense to that God they knew not, than to those who were fastened to their Shrines, or enclosed in their Temples: So we own more reverence and honour to those heroical and glorious Souls who are happily hidden to the World, and lost in God, to be known by him alone, than to those whose Virtue has been Preached, and who have had an immortal glory among Mortals. These have had their share in the rewards of the World; those have been despised; These have united the honours of the Earth with the merit of those of Heaven; those have renounced their own Glory to procure that of God. And St. Paul having said, that there are certain Souls who are willing to go beyond the first Lessons, who learn by the observance of God's Commandments, and the Church's Laws, to study the most exalted maxims of Christianity, and surpass the obligations common to all Christians, even so far as to the renouncing, hating, and annihilating themselves, to be sacrificed on every trial and occasion to the Empire of Divine Love, which transforms them all into God, and makes them enter into the Powers of the Lord, (saith the Prophet) that is, into an adorable Communication, and as it were into the rights of the same Attributes of Purity, Holiness and Charity of this God, to whose Union this kind of Perfect Life has exalted 'em; this heavenly Doctor called such Souls dead, and hidden in God with Jesus Christ, because the spiritual work of inward Abnegations, and Abandoning of all their proper Interest, and their own self into that of God, falling not under the sense and reason of men, it must also thence be, that men are not capable of the Perfections which this Labour acquires them: which makes him say, That he esteems them greater for the perfections which they have and discover not, than for those which would carry their Reputation and Name over the Universe, and acquire 'em the Acclamations and Honours of the World. Words which seem to have been read by that Ancient, when he said, That Virtue is hidden within herself, that our eyes were too feeble to support her lustre; and that she hide for those who were most assiduous at her Sacrifices, Beauties which would obscure those of the Sun, if the generality of men were capable of observing 'em.  
Hence I draw this advantageous Conclusion for the Honour of St. Ann, That had men looked on her perfection with a steady eye, and a constant view, she had not appeared greater to their eyes than Saturn to ours, which though the vastest in extent of all our Planets, the most perfect too and most beautiful, seems the smallest, because he is the farthest removed from our sight. St. Ann was a Mystery hidden from Eternity in God, who was pleased to make use of her for the productions of his first Designs, and for giving by her the first attacks to death, which had introduced into the World; demonstrating how, if the weakness of one Woman had given beginning to its Conquests, the Virtue and Generosity of another should beat down its Trophies, and overturn its Empire; since in the ordinary course of Generation she conceived and gave to the World a Daughter, who acknowledged neither its Way nor Dominion. If then in this miserable case of our race, our Impotence be such, as not to be able to resist the power, and to oppose ourselves to the violence of Death, a St. Ann be found alone in Nature, who has done that which none could tell how to do, taken from Death the first Pretensions and Rights which it had usurped over human births; Who can have thoughts capable to form an Idea of her merit? or words to express what is not beneath both what she was, and what we own to her? Add, how this Saint having studied nothing but continual Annihilations of her self, and Glorifications of her God, she retained nothing of the Earth, but made herself wholly Celestial, whose merit was therefore removed from all human knowledge, and reserved for the Divine alone. And as Alexander the Great said, That the Sceptre and Crown of the World were not, but for the Virtues of him who admitted nothing worthy to bond his Ambition, but what was not known to the rest of men, and what the greatest of the Gods kept concealed in his brain; She also whom Jesus Christ had designed for the Regency and Government of his Family, to command there as the Virgin's Mother, who was His, required far other qualifications than common Morality, and aught to have far different Virtues from those, which ordinary holiness teaches all men: which therefore have been kept unknown, by reason of the greatness and excess of this merit. But God alone, who is able to give the just praises of holy Actions to every one according to the weight and excellence of their value, has been pleased to draw them out of silence in this Age, by an Annual Commemoration and solemn Feast in his Church, to show them unto all the World in the Glory of their Triumphs; and has discovered to us two sorts, some External, which she borrows elsewhere; others Internal, with which she adorns her Soul. For   

CHAP. II. The External Perfections of St. ANN.  
I Advance them from the consideration of her Daughter; for if the goodness of the Fruit necessarily proves that of the Tree, this fair Plant of Eternity, St. Ann, can't be better known than by her Daughter the Holy Virgin; and though one should write in her honour as many Volumes as are in the World, there could not hence be given us so perfect a knowledge of her Prerogatives, as is in simply saying, that she was the Mother of the Mother of God, and the Grandmother of God himself.  
It is this Tree that the Angels shown to St. Bridgid, saying to her, Figure to yourself, chaste Spouse of Jesus Christ, a Royal Eagle, who going to make her Nest, and prepare a Lodging for her young Eagles, goes from Forest to Forest, flies from Mountain to Mountain, to choose a Tree which may serve her design, and having met with that which surpasses all others in height and beauty, which has the deepest and strongest Roots, and the best defended from Storms and Tempests, she stops there, and makes choice of the strongest Branch, and the nearest to Heaven, to feed there, and breed her young ones.  
Imagine now that God is this Eagle, who running over with his Eyes, as it were, so many beautiful Trees, all the Women who were to be from the first to the last, perceived not any one so worthy to receive the Glorious Virgin, who was to be the little Nest of the Heavenly Eaglet, who is the Word Incarnate, as St. Ann, in whom he rested himself, as in the Tree of Paradise, which he knew to be the tallest in Devotion, the deepest in Humility, the largest in Charity, and of the most pleasant odour in Sanctity.  
O Beautiful Tree! and far other than that which was represented in a Picture at the triumphant entry of Mary de Medicis, Queen Mother of Lewis 13. which bore Sceptres for Boughs, Crowns for Flowers, Kings for the Stock, and little Deities for the Fruits. St. Ann was the fair Tree of the Genealogy of Jesus and Mary, whose Stock is made up with the Davids, the solomon's, and other Kings whose Flowers are Diadems; but the Holy Virgin, the richest Crown, as being the finest Flower of Heaven and Earth, and her Fruit is the Incarnate Son of God. Certainly as the most glorious Diadem of the First of the uncreated Persons, is the Production of his Word the second Person, whom he begat in the splendour of Saints; so, if, in one word, you would know the price of that Crown which St. Ann bore both on Earth and in Heaven, it must be said, and this is to say all, that her Treasure and her Crown, was the giving being to her who gave it to a God, which is to be Crowned with the Merits of Mary, like the Tree with its Flowers and Fruit.  
Whence it is to be concluded, That the Dignity, the Grace, and the Holiness of this only, and only Perfect Daughter, aught to reflect back to her Mother, even to a point, That she rendered her incomparable in Sanctity, as she was in her Dignity. For of two things, one must of necessity happen, Either that this holy Virgin had not the Power, or that having the Power, she communicated to her whatever we can fancy greatest in Grace. Her Paps have too much credit and access with the Word, her Son, not to have the Power, who being in the terms of Clement of Alexandria, the Pap of his Heavenly Father, which gave foecundity to all Nature, would also, as he had been the Principle of the Universe, by being Mamelle de son Pere, the Virgin should be his; and that from the Bosom of his Mother should proceed a Power, (but yet not without proportion) and a Force to establish a World of Grace to make Saints, and to make them worthy of Glory. So that it is true in some sort, and good Divinity to say, That the Felicity of the Saints is derived from Mary, and that there is no body who is not obliged to her for the fortification of his Patience, for the Victory over his Temptations, for Preservation from Falls, for Augmentation of his Merits, for his final Grace, and finally, for his Glory.  
This Principle supposed, who will doubt that St. Ann was not the Masterpriece of Mary's Workmanship, and that the Power of this last, was not the Measure of the Excellence of the former? She could make a Prodigy of Virtue, and a Miracle of Greatness, therefore she did; and not only from the time that She was her Daughter, but even before She was created, we may say, That She laboured on this Masterpiece. And it is one of the greatest Miracles of the Mysteries of our Religion, that the Children give Life to their Parents; and those who are not yet, give admirable Advantages to those who already are.  
Thus Jesus is the Son of Adam, according to Nature, and his Father according to Grace; the Virgin is the Mother of the Saviour, by the shadowing of the Holy Spirit, and is likewise the eldest Daughter to the Redeemer. Thus St. Ann is in the state of Grace, the Daughter of her Daughter, the Holy Virgin, by a Plenitude of Grace, which She from her received.  
Which ought not to be thought strange by him, who has tasted the Sense, and universal Consent of the Fathers, who assert, that what was given in Plenitude to Christ, aught in Proportion to be attributed to the Holy Virgin; that they both were busied in the cares of our Salvation with the same Courage, though not the same Power: It's then the Spirit of Christ is not only diffused in the new, but has its extent over all the Old Testament; and no Body was saved, but by his Merits anticipated; wherefore should one deny Jesus Christ to have in favour of the foreseen Merits of his Mother, granted some Graces as well before, as after his Conception, to certain Souls, especially to those most nearly allied to him.  
Among these, St. Ann, in Consideration of the Merits of this Virgin, was elevated to the Prerogatives and Crowns, which ought to answer the degree of Alliance which she had to her, which was no less than of a Mother to a Daughter, an Alliance which establishes.   

CHAP. III. The first Reason of the Prerogatives of St. ANN.  
SHE gave to the Virgin Being and Life, which is the dearest Treasure of Man, and the Foundation of other Perfections. In exchange, therefore, it is reasonable the Virgin should impart to Her all the Noble Qualities, which might make a Soul filled with Complacency to her God.  
For if our Lady had an extreme Zeal to carry Jesus Christ into the House of her Cousin Elizabeth, so to sanctify her Child, while he was enclosed in her Womb; if this Zeal thought long, and her Love gave her Wings to fly thither without fear of the Inconveniences and Fatigues of the Journey, with design of procuring Holiness to her Relations, and her Blood. God having put a perfect Order in her Affections and Loves; must it not be said, That that which She had for the rest of her Relations, was but a spark in respect of the cares which She had for her which was her Mother? And must it not be believed She gave her a better allotment in Jesus Christ and his Graces; there being nothing so reasonable as to do all the good She could to her Parent?  
Certainly one of the most powerful Arguments for convincing a generous Spirit, is the fitness of the matter; and this fitness is more prevalent with good Judgements, than the strictness of Laws.  
Whence St. Thomas speaking of the two highest Mysteries, the Incarnation of the Word, and the Reality of his Body, the adorable Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Altar, says they ought to be believed, because it was fit that the Son of God for the perfect Union of himself with us, should be allied by the Personal Union with our Nature, and be really in the Eucharist, to satisfy the Rules of Love, which require a continual Presence of the beloved Object. Lastly, says this Saint, to show that these Mysteries have fitness, is sufficient to show, that they are so in Truth.  
Now there is nothing more reasonable, than to say, That the Virgin loved her Mother with a generous and noble Love, that is never without Liberalities and Graces; and that she imparted to her the richest Presents of Heaven, since She had 'em in her Power, and her Hands; and that in doing so, She satisfied the most just Sentiments of Nature, and obeyed the Holy Laws of her God, which commanded the Honour of her Father and Mother. And as there was in this the greatest Fitness, we proceed to show, that there was also the greatest   

CHAP. iv JUSTICE. The second Reason of the Prerogatives of St. ANN.  
GOD's Justice would not have less Satisfaction for the Sins of Men, than the Death of a God. Now 'tis wonderful in the Holy Virgin, that to conform herself to this Justice, She forgot (if I may so say) how She was the Mother of God; and She offered herself, like a bloody Victim on the Altar of the Cross. For as the Son of God ought not to pass from the Bosom of his Father, into that of a Virgin Mother, and to make himself Man without her Consent; so neither ought he, neither would he be destined to the Death, which was to make us Immortal, but by the Consent of this his Mother.  
If then She generously executes the thing in the World, which is the most difficult to her, the depriving herself of the Object of all her Delights, consenting to the Death of her only Son, an Action naturally contrary to the Love of such a Mother: If She quits the part of a Lover, to become a Believer; and a Mother's Affections, to perform Obedience to God; if lastly, Justice carries her beyond Love; how can it be, that the Virgin obliged by Divine and Humane Laws, to Honour her Mother, should not employ all the Artifices of her Love, and all the efforts of her Power, to make of St. Ann a true Sanctuary of all Graces?  
The Grace to consult the Judgement of St. Peter, is a Participation of Divine Nature; the Virgin therefore having the Plenitude of this in her Bosom, for the Communication of it to Souls, and being not only blessed among all Women, but the very Spring of all Blessings; what part ought She to give to her Mother? A Duty which further proceeds from   

CHAP. V The Obedience of the Virgin to St. ANN. The third Reason of her Prerogatives.  
IF from this, that the Son of God was well pleased to submit his impeccable Will, to that of the Virgin; a good Consequence is drawn, how Innocent and Strait ought that Rule to be, which gave Law to the Son of God?  
So to see this little Virgin impeccable by Grace, as her Son was by Nature, at the Feet of St. Ann, to take the Instructions and Exercises of her Mother, has one not a just Motive to believe the Innocence, and the Rectitude of the Affections and Passions of this Holy Mother, who ought to regulate those of her Daugther, who was the most perfect of all Creatures? The Personal Union set a part, is as much removed from the least spot of Sin, as the Sun from Darkness and Obscurity; and St. Austin took so high a flight in the Praises of the Virgin, that he got out of Sight, saying, That he advanced nothing that exceeded her Merit, by calling her the Form of God; that is, though there be no Miracle in the World like to the Mercies of Jesus Christ, and those of his Mother be but little Rays in Comparison of this Sun; he was pleased to frame as it were an Idea, on which he cast his Eyes, to mark upon his Soul the beautiful Lines of the excellent Practices of Virtue, which he saw in his Mother, to the end one might see in the Son, as it were a lively Image, and Expression of the rare Virtues of the Mother; or else, and rather this brave Title of Form of God, means that Jesus Christ had a design, that as in the Looking-Glass, the Image of his Face is seen, who locks into it, and as Wax receives the Form and Figure of the Seal, which is imprinted on it; even so, the Holy Virgin was marked with the Seal of the Divine Perfections of Jesus; and She has represented them in herself after a very excellent manner.  
So nothing is advanced concerning the Merits of St. Ann, which accrues not to the Honour and Glory of her Daughter, by calling her the true Form of the Virgin, and by saying She had such Accumulation of Perfections, that to see the Holy Virgin practice those Virtues, which came so near those of her Mother, one would reasonably judge that St. Ann might serve as an Original and Model to the holy Actions of the Virgin, if they had not been otherwise more Holy in proportion to the Grace of the Mother of God, which heightened them.  
To what degree of Sanctity ought St. Ann to be exalted, who so lively expressed, and so perfectly represented in herself, the Virtues of the Virgin; and whose rare Qualities might be the Ideas and Patterns of those of this her so worthy a Daughter. But   

CHAP. VI The Glory of JESUS CHRIST. The fourth Reason of the Prerogatives of St. AND  
REquires that St. Ann should be such, to be his worthy Grandmother. For if the Messiah from the time that he prepared his Birth for the World, and put his first disposals and designs in Abraham, desired Innocence and Sanctity from him to merit this favour; must he not desire those incomparably greater in St. Ann, according to the measure that She more nearly approached his Blood. The Holy Virgin then seeing the Glory of her Son engaged, and the Sanctity of her Mother to enter into the Interests of the Incarnate Word her Son, must ●he not have made St. Ann a Work of Grace worthy of the Admiration of Angels, and of the Adoration of Men?  
And if elsewhere, in the designs of the eternal Providence, and in the Language of Scripture, Names serve for a mark of Offices, and Offices are the measures of Merits; St. Ann having been chosen in the Ideas of eternal Predestination to be the Grandmother of Jesus Christ; ought not this step to comprehend as many Excellencies as demonstrate the Sublimeness of this Saints Perfections? There need be used only the Dignity of her Name of Grandmother of Jesus Christ. An Argument which the Apostle uses to prove the Pre-eminences of Jesus Christ above the Angelical Natures; for that he was the Son of God. The Dignity therefore in St. Ann, that having entered by the Conception and Nativity of the Virgin, into the Oeconomy of the Incarnation, and into the state of the Hypostatical Union, She was by this her Daughter, exalted into so dazzling a Throne of Glory, that there is only above it, the Trinity of uncreated Persons, the Humanity of Jesus Christ, and the Holiness of her Daughter, Mother of God; leaving below her Greatness all other created Eminencies; without doubt St. Ann ought to expect such a Preeminence from the Queen of Virtues, and the worthy Mother of the King of Virtues, the Virgin. It remains now to see   

CHAP. VII. The Internal Perfections of St. AND  
WIth Relation to which we must Sacrifice closed Eyes, like those who adored the Fortune of the Romans, and in the Extasis of our Hearts, and in the humble Sentiments that carry our Souls to confess our Impotencies, to acknowledge the Merits and Virtues of her, who bore in her barren Womb the first fruits of our Redemption, and who nourished with her Milk the Fruit of all Benediction; let us be content to say, That as the fairest Flower of the Virgin's Crown was the Meriting her exalted Dignity of Mother of God; so that of St. Ann is, that God gave to her Merits, this glorious Advantage of conceiving in her Bowels a Daughter, whose Conception without Sin, and Birth full of Honour; effected the Re-establishment of the Universe. Merits which were   

CHAP. VIII. Her Prayers.  
FOR though God in the Decrees of his Providence be resolved to bestow certain Graces on some Persons; he nevertheless determined before the World not to grant them but to those who ask for them; and in the everlasting Preparation of such Favours, their Prayers are included either as Causes or Means of obtaining.  
Hence he would have us ask the very things which he is resolved to give us, as we must open our Eyes to receive the light of the Sun, and observe some Formalities to obtain the Graces of a Prince. Thus God having in his eternal Predestination prepared this incomparable Benefit for St. Ann, to be Mother of the Mother of the Word Incarnate; he would that She should acquire this ineffable Treasure by her Tears and Vows; that so her Merit might enter into the Execution of this everlasting Counsel. St. Ann therefore having been above twenty years in a State of Barrenness with him whom God had given her for a Husband, St. Joachim, was in Affliction to see herself without a Child, who might blot out the Reproach which She met with in the Company of other Ladies; requested daily from Heaven, with a Countenance of Grief, a Remedy for her Disgrace.  
But there is nothing which so much contracted her Heart, as the Confusion and Shame which the Highpriest Issachar one day put her into, as She went according to her Custom to Jerusalem, at the Solemnity of one of the great Feasts of the year, where in face of all the World, he reproached her of Rashness and Boldness, to appear with the rest, She who bore the marks of God's Malediction, with which being troubled tooth quick, and not knowing from whom to receive Consolation, She had recourse to God with Supplication to take from her this Reproach, and with Promise to Consecrate to him the Fruit which he should please to give her; and not daring to present herself any more openly to the World, She threw herself into a Solitude and Retreat, which shut up all Avenues to Company, having no other Companions but her Thoughts, and her Affections for Heaven. In this lonesome place, where She was wholly attentive to her God, wholly fixed and bend in Spirit and Will to him, to consider his Greatness, and admire his Perfections, and where She did every day noble and heroical Acts of Love, and of Conformity to the Divine Pleasure, of Faith and Hope, of Adoration and Glorification, and other Virtues; not to speak of the Sublime Operations of the Mystical Life, to which God had exalted her, and which all the Words of Men are ●ot able to explicate.  
But where in recompense of her Introversions and Recollections, there was happily fulfilled in her the Prophecy in Isa. 35. in favour of the Souls that retire from their Commerce with the World, to be busied only with God; for as much as She received unspeakable Joys in her Desert; and that her Retreat was to her a Spring of living Delights. For the heavenly Angel came to visit her on the beginning of December, and brought to her the happy, and the fortunate News from God, of a Daughter, which should be named Mary, which should not only cause Joy to her, but should likewise be the happiness of infinite others, since she was to be the Mother of the Messiah promised in the Law; and to collect in herself the Riches of Libanus and Carmel, which are the Fruitfulness of a Mother, and the Integrity of the Virgin in the same Spirit.  
And, as has been said, so God repaired with an exceeding advantage by himself, and by the abundance of his Graces, all the Losses which this Soul suffered, retired from the Contentments and Recreations of all Creatures, and made her Solitude like Paradise. Mirth and Joy are found here, and Praises are here retained; for having seen her. Barrenness followed with the Birth of a Daughter, who is the Treasure of Heaven and Earth, and who gave her a God for Grandson: O the Noble Fruit of the Prayer of St. Ann! Marry, who is the Wonder of Nature, the Prodigy of Grace, and the Miracle of Glory. After her Prayer comes   

CHAP. IX. Her Humility.  
IF Prayer be in the Opinion of the Fathers, an Elevation of the Soul to God, as of a Vapour from the Earth to Heaven; it is necessary First, That as the Vapour is elevated from the Earth by the Rays of the Sun, attracting it with its heat, and subtilizing it by taking away its gravitating Quality derived from the Earth, the place of its Origine; just so the Prayer of St. Ann, that it might be elevated as high as God's Throne, was directed thitherward in little Fumes which the heat of Divine Love excited in her, purifying whatever she had of Earth, that her Soul might have only the Affections and Sentiments of Heaven.  
Secondly, That as the Vapour being in the Middle Region of the Air, melts and falls back towards the Earth, as if the Sun by its Rays would constrain it to return to, and know its first Principle; just so the Prayer which the Tongue and Heart of St. Ann had sent up into the Bosom of God, aught by the Divine Ray to be abased and reflected into the Consideration of one's Nothing, and to return to the Earth by Sentiments of Humility; but such as should bring along with them the Showers and the Dews of Jesus and Mary, and which should fertilise the Human Nature with a God Man, and with the Mother of God: An excellent Rule of Prayer in the Approaches and Fervours, the Unions and Exaltations of one Being to descend back into Meanness, and the Meditation that one is Nothing, that one is worth Nothing, that one can do Nothing, that one merits nothing from God.  
Which is the Reason perhaps why the High Priest sprinkled those who offered Sacrifices, with Ashes mixed with Water, to advertise them that they were nothing but dead Earth, uncapable of Consistence and Motion without the Favours of Heaven; and that they ought to be of Abraham's mind, who said, I will appear before my Lord, dust and ashes as I am. Hence it follows that we ought to hope for the Grace of God, and Supernatural Powers.  
It is in these Valleys of mean esteem of ones self, says David, that God makes the Fountains of his Favours, and the Waters of his Grace to flow; and not upon the Mountains and Spirits of Presumption, that approach the Temples and the Altars, with Head and Face lifted up before him, in whose Presence the Angels tremble, and the Seraphims sink down into the lowest depths with Reverence; and before whom; says St. Austin, if thou wilt humble thyself, the bait of thy Humility attracts him, and he is constrained to descend from his Father's Bosom into thine; thou possessest him, and dost with him after the Inclination of thy will: But if vain glory accompany thy Prayer, thou findest a God who has Thunder in his hand to destroy thee. 'Twas in these valleys of mean esteem of herself, the Prayer of St. Ann found Forces, and the grant of her Requests. Her Third Merit was   

CHAP X. Her Generous Confidence in God's Providence.  
THE Earth, in my Opinion, is the Noblest, though the last of the Elements, because being not able to act of its self, this state gives it so much Sympathy with the Sun, that it becomes fruitful through the favour of his Beams in all kinds of Production: So it is a very glorious Weakness, and powerful Impotence, for an humble Soul to acknowledge her Miseries and her Nothing: Since God beholding this Void, he immediately replenishes it with his Grace; for where the Creature is not, there is the Creator presently found; and where Manhood leaves us, there the Godhead enters by a Consequence as necessary in the Order of Grace, as in that of Nature, the Air immediately fills those places which it finds void.  
Now as God has extraordinary Graces that reward Humility, and exalt it from its meanness into which it seems plunged; among others there is a generousness of Heart which the humble Soul draws from the great Confidence she puts in this, that an Infinite Wisdom both knows, and is able; and will help her; triumphing over her Miseries and Weaknesses; and being to her what her Soul is to her Body, or the Heaven to the Earth.  
Confidence in God, which comprehends all the most distant degrees of nature in a most simple Unity, unites these two Contrarieties, to believe that we can do nothing, and that we can do every thing. That we are able to do nothing of our own strength, and that we can do every thing in virtue of the Divine Arm on which we rely. Thus when Humility has made us diffident of ourselves, we ought to raise our Courages by an holy and invincible Faith, that may make us brave all the Disgraces and Difficulties of the World, looking to this allseeing eye, and all-powerful Arm, who has a heart readier to give to us, than ours to ask or receive.  
Such was the Prayer of S. Ann, animated with a lively Faith, not only a general one, which made her believe that God to whom she prayed was all-powerful, and all-good, and had a Paternal Providence, and an infinite love for her; but a particular faith that this gracious God would grant her the desired Grace, according to the Pattern of another Ann the Mother of Samuel, 1 King. 1. Concerning whom the Sacred Oracle pronounces that after the Prayer which she made to obtain a Son, she was no more agitated by any waves of Inquietude; but was left in a constant evenness, and a perfect tranquillity of mind, as if she already had the thing she prayed for, says St. Chrysostom of the first Anna, and felt the Babe formed and stirring in her womb, inasmuch as she had begged it with a spirit not wavering, undoubtful of success, but with an entire confidence, and an unshaken persuasion that she should obtain. 'Tis thus, says St. Thomas 2a. 2ae. Q. 83. that as Charity makes our Prayer meritorious, Confidence makes it impetratorious, or effectual. Thus it is that those great Courages who fully confide in God, glorify him more by the Noble and high Sentiments that they have of him, than a Million of narrow hearts, to whom all seems lost as soon as they see any thing fail 'em, and themselves left by some one of these broken reeds, the Creatures on which they relied.  
Thus it is that St. Basil in his 20th. Orat. de Principatu exalts Confidence as much as Sacrifice, and says, It's no more lawful to place it any where else than in God, than to present the Cult which the Sacrifice contains, to any other than him. To this I add, that as the Honour we give to God in Sacrifice is very great by reason of the Protestation we there make of acknowledging him for our Sovereign: So that which he receives from us by Confidence, is wonderful, inasmuch as it is like an Oath of Fealty, and an Homage whereby we oblige ourselves to be willing to depend on him alone, avowing his infinite bounty and infallible verity, and renouncing every other hold which we might have but him, which is very honourable to him; and it is thus that our Saint by the vigour and firmness of her Faith merited the greatest Grace in the World next to the Personal Union, and Divine Maternity, that is, to bear in her Womb the Virgin, who was to be the Mother of God, and to have for Grandson, and embrace in her Arms no less than him who has God for his Father.  
After these Preeminences of this great Saint, we have nothing to do but to contribute our Homages by Invocation of her Powers, and the imitation of her Virtues. As for,   

CHAP. XI. Her Credit and Power in Heaven.  
IF St. Ann next to the Virgin be the nearest to Jesus Christ, and has a greater share of him than any of all the Saints in the Incarnation, which is the cause of the Crowns they wear; it is easy to conclude, that this Proximity has given her the most eminent of Paradise, as water partakes more of the qualities of its Spring, the nearer it is to it; and that her Credit is parallel to her Greatness, which the better to comprehend, it is necessary to remember how all Gods creatures being the productions of his Goodness, by the Being which he gave them as an extract of his own, he would have them to rejoin again to him as to their final, as well as efficient cause, placing this Perfection in this Reunion and Return to their Principle.  
Now according to the Doctrine of St. Thomas, in his Book of the Humility of Christ, his Will was to recall to himself middle things by the high, and low ones by the middle; and he makes use of Jesus Christ, to gather together, and reunite by him whatever is in Heaven or in Earth; and this Jesus Christ makes use in the first place of the Holy Virgin as the nearest allied, then of some Persons of Election and near approach to the Incarnation, the Principle of all Sanctification; upon this account therefore St. Ann was to have the next rank to her Daughter, and must approach nearest after her in the Sanctity of Jesus Christ, and in Grace, which is with St. James a quality wholly Divine, defending from the Father of Lights into our Souls, and must come there first by Christ, then by the Virgin, and after that by St. Ann; consequently in our Indigencies and Needs we must address ourselves by St. AND to the Virgin, and by the Virgin to Jesus Christ, and by Jesus Christ to God his Father, who can refuse nothing to his Son, no more than he can to his Mother, or she to hers who is St. Ann. And as St. Gertrude, a Virgin of an incomparable Piety and Glory of the French Sceptre, saw one day in an extacy Angels who descended from Heaven, and who in the midst of the Choir where the singing was, brought a most resplendent Throne of Glory, in the which the H. Virgin being seated, like a Queen full of Majesty, received the Prayers of all the Nuns who approached this Throne, and fulfilled their request.  
It must be said that this Throne was the Glorious St. Ann, in which Jesus and Mary are set down; and if we would obtain any Grace whatever, we must prostrate ourselves before this Throne of Grace, Ann being rightly interpreted Grace, and go thither with Confidence and Fervour. But above all, with   

CHAP. XII. The Imitation of her Virtues,  
BY which we revere her Sanctity, as by our Prayers we humbly acknowledge her Power.  
And this the whole end and fruit that God would have by Invocations and Cults toward this Saint, and the sole means which those Souls who carry this fair Name of Ann, have to possess it with advantage.  
For as God seeing that we are but impotent and wretched Creatures, having no Present worthy to approach his Throne, and to be offered to him, desires from our Weakness only the sanctification of his Name, which is performed by Holiness in our Manners, and Innocence in our Lives.  
It is also this his Grandmother desires from the Souls who carry her Name, signifying a Spring of Grace, that their hearts be always replenished with it, for that else they would possess it but by injustice and violence; and this would be to have a splendid name in appearance, accompanied with very ill circumstances; and to fall into the reproach of a Judas, a word which signifies Confession, but who was notwithstanding the perfidious Traitor of his Master; or of an Absolom, That is to say, the Peace of his Father, and who was yet his torment and his scourge; or of a Solomon, amabilis Deo, the beloved of God, by whom he was nevertheless hated for his impurities. This, lastly, would be to be a Capernaum, Ager penitentiae, the Field of penitence, a Town which was yet so obstinate, and which cared so little to do Penance, that Jesus Christ in St. Luke swore its destruction.  
A Name then so favourable, and so full of Grace as Ann, aught to furnish continual matters of Virtue to the Souls who have the honour to bear it, if they but never so little permit their thoughts to meditate on it; and this obliges them particularly, as it generally obliges all Christians,  
To have always holy Alliances and Sacred ties with God the Principle of Grace, to follow always the guidances and motives of Grace, but especially to practise such of her Virtues as Jesus Christ knows to be most convenient for our condition; as among other, her solitudes and her retreats, so to make you often seen to God and to yourself: For it is in the Hives that the Bees make secretly their Honey, and the Silkworms make their Silk within their Cells; Nature forms the King of Metals in silence, in the Caverns of the Earth, out of the noise and sight of Men: The Manna fell during the rest and calm of the night, not with Storm or Tempest, but gently and without tumult, as the dew which is softly and without show transpired into the bosom of the Earth.  
It is not in the hurry of the World, in the noise of House-keeping, in the Inquietude of Cares, in the turmoils of an active and a divided Life, but in the separation from every thing in the bottom of the Soul, in Tranquillity, the disengagement and liberty of the Spirit in the recollection and solitude of the Heart, where the Holy Spirit sheds abundantly its Graces, to prepare a Soul, of whom he designs to make an instrument of his Wonders, as he did of St. Ann.  
It is in this Sanctuary that this hidden Manna is found, Rev. 2. that is given to the Souls Triumphant over the World, which is no other thing but an ineffable Consolation begot from a very inward and continual Inclination towards God, with a sense and relish of his Truths and Greatness, better apprehended by Experience than by Knowledge.  
It is in the Quietude of this Divine Genter and Fund, that there is tasted this kind of Prayer which you desire, Holy Souls, which consists not so much in that which is ours in functions and uses of our Powers, but in that which is God's, and in the infusion of his Graces, where through a full silence of the Soul, which is a denudation of Thoughts in the Understanding, and of Affections in the Will; the sole Master of Hearts speaks and brings nothing thither but that sole disposition of Respect and Submission to the most pure, most simple, and most inward action of the Uncreated Spirit in ours.  
It is here you shall not only be able to carry your Hopes beyond the Forces, and to cast your filial and amorous Confidences into the Protection of God's Arm, and into the Sweetness of the Love which he hath for you; but shall also adjust you to your Rule, which can't fail, that after the request of some Grace from God, you may have your Spirit at rest, and deposited in that of God, to wait for, with Patience and Silence, as Jeremy says, the Salvation of God.  
It is here, That after the Pattern of St. Ann, you give up yourself to the entire Consummation of the most holy Will, and most adorable Designs, which God has had from Eternity upon you, and upon each moment of your Life. And it is here, that your Soul appearing quite naked before him, submits herself to him with absolute Resignation of Spirit, of Sense, of Taste, and of all manner of Satisfaction, desiring nought but God's only Good, and the Interest of his Glory; breathing forth these Words from all your Heart, I cast myself at the Mercy of the Love which you have for me, O my God. I am the Object of the Vigilance and the Affection of a God. It's enough for me that thou takest the Title of my Father, to make me see that thy Power is inseparable from thy Goodness, that I ought to expect thence all the good that shall be to thy Glory, and my Salvation, which is whatever I must; that all the present desires of God be accomplished on me: I am content and indifferent to all, for Scarcity or Abundance, to Act or to Suffer, for Obtaining or Refusing, Consolation or Desolation, Calvary or Thabor. I offer myself to all as a pure Capacity of God to his designs.  
It is here, lastly, That you must supplicate him to lead you into Devotion, and all other Exercises of Life; either retired or secular, by the way he has ordained for you, whether of Conformity, which is a total Subjection, and resolute Dependence of your Will on the Divine Will in all Events and Occurrences, however displeasing and irksome, comforting yourself in your very misfortune, or disgrace, of seeing you an Object of the Divine Severity, if it tend to his Glory. Or  
Of Uniformity, which adds to the other an Union of your Will with the Divine, which takes away all repugnance and difficulty, and brings an appetite and longing desire of what God Wills, and carries the Soul to will it, for this reason only, that God is therewith contented, and desires it; and which causes that in all our internal and external Operations, the Soul be in a moment united to God, to know in these his good pleasure, and to put the same immediately into Practice: Or lastly,  
Of Deformity, which unites the Will by such an efficacy of Love to the Divine, that the Soul no longer feels or perceives herself, than as if She were really no more in being; and in her Manners and Actions, only feels in herself the uncreated Will, by an entire Transformation made her own, as we see a little drop of Water presently take the Colour, Taste, and Nature of Wine; and a piece of Iron thrown into the Fire, quit in some manner, the Form and Appearance of Iron, to take that of Fire; and as the Air, which is penetrated by the Rays of the Sun, seems not so much to be enlightened, as to be light itself.  
By these three ways, or even any one of these, you'll worthily Honour the Greatness and Prerogatives, and certainly implore the Favours of the Great St. ANN.   

The Prayer to St. ANN.  
O Great Saint, in Honour of Gods regarding and exalting You in his Eternity, to these most high and sublime Estates of Mother of the Mother of God, and Grandmother of Jesus Christ;  
And in Union of all the Graees which were given you in consequence of these; of the Sanctity of your Soul, of your most profound Humility, of your perfect Resignation, of your eminent Devotion, of your Silence and Retreat, of the tenderness of your Loves towards your Daughter and Grandson, of your continual Application of Mind toward these two Divine Objects; of all the Offices of Grandmother, which you were worthy to render to Jesus Christ in Honour of this, that he hath so strongly tied you in Blood, Spirit and Grace, to his Hypostatical Union.  
In Adoration of all the Virtues of your Life, and of the last Breath, in which You gave up the Spirit in the state of final Grace, consummated in the hand of your Grandson, and your God.  
In Homage of the Right and Power which you had of Mother over your Daughter, and of Grandmother over her Son, and of their Submissions and Reverences which they rendered You.  
In Acknowledgement, lastly, of this, That you were not only of the Family which Jesus Christ came to establish upon Earth, but even Mother and Head of this Family, and looking on Jesus, as making a part of your Family.  
O glorious Saint, associate me to this worthy Family, bind and unite my Soul to Jesus Christ, and that I may be wholly his; since you touch him so near, as there is none but Mary betwixt you and Him.  
O, I believe, That in Virtue of this great Communication of Love and Grace, which was between you, and the Author, and the Mother of Grace, that you have Right and Power in Heaven, to give Souls to Jesus, and to Mary.  
O my Sovereign, next to Jesus and Mary, give them my Soul; I yield and resign to You all the Power that I have over myself; I put under Your Government and Protection all the Moment's and Motions of my Life, and all the Persons that compose my Family, which henceforward I will call Yours.  
Lastly, My all-dear Mother and Mistress, for the last Grace, I beg of You, That as You had always your Eyes upon the Divine Face of Jesus Christ, and Your Heart in his with Burn and Flames which he enkindled within you when you had the Honour of Kissing and Embracing him, a time which so continued to increase each moment, that at last it put a Period to Your Life, when not being able to support the effort of it, You happily, and by an excess and languishing of Love, expired in the hands of Your Daughter, and in the Kisses of Your Grandson.  
O that You would just so assist me in the Passage and Decisive Moment of mine Eternity, and obtain for me an happy Death under the Protection of the Virgin, and in the Grace of Jesus.    

Approbation.  
Nous soubsignez Docteurs en Theologie de la Faculté de Paris, certifions avoir leu, & examiné ce Livre Intitulé Les Grandeurs de Sainte Anne, dedié a la Reyne par les Filles de Saint Joseph, auquel n'avons rien trovué que de conforme à l'Eglise Apostolique & Romaine. Au contraire l'avons estimé digne d'estre mis en lumiere, comme tref-utile pour entretenir la Devotion a Sainte Anne. En foy de quoy nous avons segne. Fait a Paris ce dixiesme Juillet Mil six cens quarantetrois.  
Vincent Judas. C. Bourlon.   

The Approbation in English.  
We the Doctors in Divinity underwritten, of the Faculty of Paris, do certify, That we have read and examined this Book, entitled, The Prerogatives of St. Ann, dedicated to the Queen by the Maids of St. Joseph, wherein we have found nothing but what is conformable to the Apostolic and Roman Church. On the contrary, we have thought it worthy to be Published as very useful to maintain the Devotion to St. Ann. In Faith whereof we have signed. Given at Paris this 10th of July, 1643.  
Vincent Judas. C. Bourlon.  
FINIS.